To the Editor:
As a student and alum of Brown University, I am disappointed by the Office of Institutional Diversity’s decision to invite Bernice King to give the Jan. 30 Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture under the title of “Advancing the ‘Dream’: Addressing Social Equity Issues to Eliminate Health Disparities in the 21st Century.” As she demonstrated in her lecture, hers is not a dream that includes the equity of me, my partner or other LGBTQ people on this campus and in this country.
Of course, the diversity of opinions on a university campus, and on Brown’s campus especially, is sacrosanct. In another context, King should and would be welcomed to campus to describe her passion for equality for non-sexual minorities. But in the context of a program organized by Brown’s Office of Institutional Diversity and in memory of this country’s greatest civil rights hero, her invitation to appear on this campus, whether in spite of her views or in ignorance of them, smarts even more than her words.
Zachary Marcus ’10 MD’16
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